I thought the Bane/Talia combo was like the perfect cocktail of Bane of the Demon, the Demon Trilogy, Vengeance of Bane and Knightfall. Elements were re-arranged and mixed up, but to me it was the best kind of adaptation: using the source material as inspiration to tell your own, different story.

Yep, this has been, IMO, one of the strengths of Nolan's trilogy.

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Originally Posted by BatLobsterRises

That includes the switching around of certain character histories. That's why I said the Bane/Talia combo, not just "Bane". I specifically used the word "cocktail" because it's a blending of familiar individual elements from all those books with a unique result. Many of the key ideas from all of those books are paid tribute to in one form or another.

Also, Bane was self-made enough to be Talia's protector in the pit. It wasn't like he was just some teddy bear before Ra's scooped him out. He still fought and killed people down there prior to his LOS training. The whole point of Bane being "self-made" in the comics is to mirror Bruce. Well, he was equally self-made as Bruce was in this version of the story too. Essentially a good brawler before receiving LOS training. Only Bane never had a problem killing.

And the thing is, people act as if the Talia twist "took away" the Bane of the comics but that's not even really the case. Even before the twist, we're meant to think Bane escaped the prison as a child...which is completely different from the idea in the comics that he studied and trained for years, underwent supersoldier serum tests etc. Those ideas were never truly present in the movie, so the Talia twist doesn't even rob him of much in the first place. Whether it's Talia or Bane, it's still basically just a scared kid with nothing to live for making a leap of faith.

However, where the movie deviated from the comics, it added something worthwhile too. Bane still had a drive and purpose in the prison- it just wasn't simply to escape and prove his awesomeness to the world (which has always rung shallow to me...especially the hackneyed bat nightmare). No, this Bane had a streak of selflessness and compassion in him. To you that makes him weaker, I guess. To me it makes Bane a much more respectable and noble character than the sexually frustrated, egocentric, self-deluded character that appears in the pages of Bane of the Demon. And that nobility seems to ring so true to what Bane should be all about IMO, because Bane is very much the hero of his own story. That's true of many villains, but especially so in Bane's case, serving very much as a dark mirror for Bruce/Batman in the mythos. And yet, Bane of the Demon still has some great ideas that the movie manages to suggest, such as Ra's not having the highest level of respect for Bane despite initially considering him as a successor, Bane wanting to succeed/surpass Ra's, even the idea of the pit that one has to climb out of seems to have roots in that book.

I don't know, I know you'll disagree with everything I've said here, but to me movie Bane was a really great, memorable character. I mean, it's almost a year later and I'm still enjoying talking about him.